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THE DEATH OF IE6

May 13

Posted by admin in Uncategorized

IE6 FAIL

 

IE6 is over 7 YEARS OLD.    It's time to die.            

Good news!  Microsoft has announced that they will now give users an automatic update notification to upgrade to IE8 (http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/04/10/prepare-for-automatic-update-distribution-of-ie8.aspx).     Unfortunately this is not a compulsory update, and there are many corporate users and luddites who may being locked into IE6 for some time to come.  So, this piece of shit browser will still continue to plague us.

 

Why does IE6 suck so bad?

Internet Explorer 6 is incredibly insecure.    This alone is reason enough to nix it from the world's browser repertoire.   Additionally, IE6 is not standards compliant, has severe useability issues, doesn't properly support new technologies, suffers from poor performance, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.    To further drive home my point, observe that Microsoft's very own MSN site is not IE6 compliant.

Also, let us also not forget IE6's economic impact.    Developers spend countless hours "hacking" clean, well-designed websites to display properly in IE6.      This time often accounts for as much as 20% of the total cost of development.   In terms of dollars, this translate to millions in wasted time and lost productivity.    It's time for developers and clients to take a stand against IE6.

 

How can we take a stand?

The cleanest way is to insert code that prevents (or discourages) IE6 users from visiting our sites.       The Stop IE6 Campaign has provided a Javascript app just for this purpose.     So, speak with your clients, and let them know the dangers, useability issues, and cost of IE6.     Together, we can fight this pandemic.

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Psystar warms my soul.

May 10

Posted by admin in Uncategorized

Psystar

Now this is truly open computing.

http://psystar.com/

These guys are awesome.   They're fighting Apple tooth and nail to be able to distribute OSX on their pcs.     So far it looks like they're winning.   However it pans out, they've won in my book.

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AMD Hackintosh Challenge! (Day 1)

May 9

Posted by admin in Uncategorized

Welcome!   Today I'm going to attempt to install Mac OS on my AMD Phenom system.      I've decided to blog the process, so grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy!

System Specs

Abit AN78GS Motherboard (nForce 730a)
AMD Phenom 9500+ (Quad Core) 
3GB DDR-1066 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB
M-Audio Delta 1010LT Audio Interface (I'll be stoked if I can get this to work)
Western Digital 160GB SATA (Could be difficult to get working)
Seagate 250GB External USB Drive (This will be the OSx86 install disk) 

OSX will run on a number of hardware configurations, but people seem to have the best luck with Intel chipsets.   Installing on my Nvidia chipset could prove to be challenging.    Check out the OSx86 Project Wiki for compatible hardware.

 

Obtaining an OSX disc

I downloaded iDeneb v1.4 (OSX 10.5.6) from the interwebs...   You're on your own with this step.     To best follow along with my post, it would be wise to obtain this same release.   

 

Burning the ISO

Use your favorite app to burn the ISO to a DVD.    I used PowerISO, but any app should work.     If you don't know how to burn an ISO you probably should stop now and go buy a real Mac.

 

Installing

Seagate 250 GB External USB

Now the fun begins!    I have opted to install to my Seagate 250GB USB drive since I am doubtful that the installer will detect my SATA drive.

 

1. First, place the DVD in your drive tray and boot the OSX installer.      The booting process will vary depending on your machine.   You may need to enter BIOS to rearrange your boot order, or hit a hotkey to instruct the system to boot from DVD (see screenshot).

Boot

 

2. Next you will see the Darwin bootloader.      I suggest hitting "F8" at the prompt and selecting "-v" from the boot options.     This enables verbose messaging so you will know if there are any issues.

Darwin Bootloader

 

3. As the installer loads you will see a bunch of messages fly across the screen, and if all goes well you will be greeted by the glorious Apple loading screen!

Apple loading screen

My installation failed at first because my DVD was dirty.   I cleaned it with a t-shirt and tried again.    This time the installer loaded just fine.

 

 

4. The next few steps are simple.    Select your language, and agree to the software license.

 

5. Once you've accepted the licensing agreement you will be given the option to select your installation disk.     It is unlikely that you will have an Apple partition already, so you must enter the disk utility to prepare a drive for OSX to use.

Disk Utility

 

6. The disk utility will load and show your available drives.    As I suspected, my SATA drives are not present, but I can see both of my USB drives.    Select the drive you would like to install OSX on, and choose "Erase."     This will format the drive using Mac OS Extended (journaled) and then mount the drive for the installer.   NOTE: This will wipe your entire drive.    Please exercise caution during this step.

Select Drive

Erase

 

7.   Now close out of the disk utility, select your newly formatted drive, and click "Continue"

Destination

 

8. This next step is probably the most important.   You must select "Customize" and tweak the installation for your system.

Customize

 

9.  The iDeneb install disc provides a number of alternate kernels and drivers to accommodate a variety of hardware configurations, so feel free to experiment here.     These are the packages I installed ->

Chipset -> AppleNForceATA Test (Hopefully this will get my SATA drives working)
Kernel -> Kernel 9.5.0 Voodoo (This is the only kernel that worked with my AMD system)
Ethernet -> nForce Ethernet  (LAN)
Video -> Nvidia -> NVdarwin -> NVdarwin 320mb (for my GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB)

 

10.   Once you've selected your customizations, click next and begin the install!    Cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Installing

 

11.  Once the install is complete your system will reboot and OSX will load.       Watch the Apple intro video and pat yourself on the back.   If you've made it this far you're doing pretty damn good.   Click through the registration process and enjoy your new operating system!

OSx86 AMD

OSx86

 

Troubleshooting!

But wait, we're not done yet!    I've got a somewhat functional Hackintosh, but my SATA drives still aren't working.    I also need to track down my audio drivers.    So check back tomorrow for DAY 2 of my Hackintosh challenge!

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8 Comments

How to add custom fields to Magento checkout

May 2

Posted by admin in Uncategorized

Custom Magento checkout fields

Here's a quick easy way to add fields to the checkout process.

 

1. Visit Magento Connect and install the Customer Order Comment Extension
  • Magento Connect can be accessed from the Magneto Admin panel by going to System -> Magento Connect -> Magento Connect Manager
  • If you have difficulties with Connect, check out my other post regarding Connect permissions

 

2. Update Magento template files
  • Check out the sample file templates in  /app/code/community/Biebersdorf/CustomerOrderComment/design/ and copy these files over the corresponding files in your template.    You may also use these files as a reference, and simply modify your existing template files.
  • To update the displayed text, modify this line in each of the aformentioned templates -> <?php echo $this->helper('biebersdorfcustomerordercomment')->__('How did you hear about us?') ?>
  • If you do not already have a custom template, I suggest installing the Magento Blank Theme and modifying this instead of the default Magento template

 

3. Voila!
  • Make sure your Magento cache is turned off, and test the checkout process.   You should now see the new field on the checkout confirmation page.

 

Room for improvement?

Certainly.     You can add additional fields by following these steps ->

  • Modify /app/code/community/Biebersdorf/CustomerOrderComment/design/mysql4-install-0.0.3.php and add the desired EAV-Attributes in the "sales/order" entity.
  • Run this file and it will create the attributes and corresponding database entries
  • Add the form fields in the template files
  • Modify /app/code/community/Biebersdorf/CustomerOrderComment/Helper/Data.php to grab these new fields and save them in the database

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6 Comments

CHMOD Octal Cheat Sheet

May 1

Posted by dskdskdsk in Uncategorized

 

It's simple, really.

7 rwx read, write, execute
6 rw- read, write
5 r-x read, execute
4 r-- read
3 -wx write, execute
2 -w- write
1 --x execute
0 --- no permissions

 

Here are a few examples :

chmod 777 (rwxrwxrwx)
chmod 775 (rwxrwxr-x)
chmod 666 (rw-rw-rw-)

 

Further Reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod

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2 Comments

Magento Connect File Permissions Fix

May 1

Posted by admin in Uncategorized

 

 

"Error: Please check for sufficient write file permissions"

 

Uh oh, looks like something's wonky here.

 

If you are running PHP as an Apache module, Magento Connect will need full write permissions to perform upgrades, so you must apply a temporary hack while using Connect.    

 

Use an SSH client to connect to your server, navigate to the Magento directory, and enter this command :

  1. find . -type d -exec chmod 777 {} \;

 

Now, login into the Magento control panel, and use Connect to apply any needed updates and/or extensions.

 

When you are finished, you must repair the permissions :

  1. find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
  2. find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

 

Next, set write permissions on your server. Here are the recommended settings :

  1. chmod o+w var var/.htaccess app/etc
  2. chmod 550 pear
  3. chmod -R o+w media

If you run into trouble, try playing with the permissions on the "var" and "app/etc" directories (ex, "chmod 775 var var/.htaccess app/etc").   

 

Voila.

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6 Comments

Dobrodošli!

Apr 28

Posted by admin in Uncategorized

 

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